The Red and the Mondegreen

Legend: Misheard lyrics to Christmas songs are immortalized as 'mondegreens.'

LEGEND

Origins: The term 'mondegreen' — representing a series of words resulting from the mishearing of a statement or song lyric — is generally attributed to Sylvia Wright, who is credited with coining the neologism in a 1954 Harper's column. Ms. Wright was chagrined to discover that for many years she had misunderstood the last line of the first stanza in the Scottish folk ballad "The Bonny Earl of Murray," which reads:

Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh! Where ha'e ye been:
They ha'e slain the Earl of Murray,
And they laid him on the Green.

Ms. Wright misheard this stanza as:

Ye Highlands and ye Lowlands,
Oh! Where ha'e ye been:
They ha'e slain the Earl of Murray,
And Lady Mondegreen.

From the disappearance of Sylvia Wright's tragic heroine, Lady Mondegreen, came the term for describing unconventional interpretations or
understandings of oral repetition, usually in the form of song lyrics.

Christmas carols and other holiday songs, rife as they are with seldom-heard words and phrasings and clever wordplay, are fertile fields for the sowing of

mondegreens — especially when children, with their limited vocabularies, are involved.

(Mondegreens are based upon a genuine misunderstanding of lyrics, a distinctly different phenomenon than the deliberate creation of parodic lyrics such as "Jingle Bells, Batman smells, Robin laid an egg," or "We three kings of Orient are; tried to smoke a rubber cigar.")

Over the years we've collected a variety of Christmas mondegreens from books, Internet postings, and reader e-mail. The table displayed below presents mangled Christmas lyrics (with the mondegreened lines bolded and italicized) in the left-hand column, while the correct lyrics are shown in the right-hand column.

Olive, the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names;
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say:
"Rudolph with your nose so bright,
won't you guard my slave tonight?"

Then how the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with gleam:
(or) As they shouted out with fleas:
"Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer,
You'll go down and hear a story!
(or) You'll go down in his story!

All of the other reindeer
Used to laugh and call him names;
They never let poor Rudolph
Join in any reindeer games.

Then one foggy Christmas Eve
Santa came to say:
"Rudolph with your nose so bright,
won't you guide my sleigh tonight?"

Then how the reindeer loved him
As they shouted out with glee:

"Rudolph, the red-nosed reindeer,
You'll go down in history!
You'll go down in history!"

Santa Claus Is Comin' to Town

Oh! You better watch out,
You better not cry,
You better not pout,
I'm telling you why:
Santa Claus is coming to town!

He's making a list Of chicken and rice;
Gonna find out who's naughty or nice.
Santa Claus is coming to town!

Outside the snow is falling,
And friends are calling, "You hoo!"
Come on, it's lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you.

Let's take the road before us
And sing a chorus or two.
Come on, it's lovely weather
For a sleigh ride together with you.

The Twelve Days of Christmas

On the twelfth day of Christmas, My tulip sent to me:
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping, Ten lawyers leaving,Nine lazy Hansons,
Eight maids a-milking, Seven warts on women,Six geezers laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves, And a cartridge in a pantry.
(or) And a partrie Jinnapear tree.
(or) And a paltry tin-affair tree.

On the twelfth day of Christmas,
My true love sent to me:
Twelve drummers drumming,
Eleven pipers piping,
Ten lords a-leaping,
Nine ladies dancing,
Eight maids a-milking,
Seven swans a-swimming,
Six geese a-laying,
Five golden rings,
Four calling birds,
Three French hens,
Two turtle doves,
And a partridge in a pear tree.

We Three Kings

We three kings of porridge and tar,
(or) We free kings of Oregon are, Burying gifts we traverse afar.
(or) Bearing gifts, we travel so far.
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.

Born a king on Bethlehem's plain,
Gold I bring to crown Him again.
King forever, seasoned leather,
Over us all to reign.

Marv is mighty bitter, perfumed;
Breathes a life of gathering gloom.
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying,
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.

We three kings of Orient are
Bearing gifts we traverse afar.
Field and fountain, moor and mountain,
Following yonder star.

Born a king on Bethlehem's plain,
Gold I bring to crown Him again.
King forever, ceasing never,
Over us all to reign.

Myrrh is mine: Its bitter perfume
Breathes a life of gathering gloom.
Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding dying,
Sealed in the stone-cold tomb.

While Shepherds Watched Their Flocks by Night

While shepherds washed their socks at night
All seated on the ground,
The angel of the Lord came down
And glory shone around.

While shepherds walked their fox by night
All seated on the ground,
The angel of the Lord came down
And glory shone around.

While shepherds watched their flocks by night,
All seated on the ground,
The angel of the Lord came down,
And glory shone around.

White Christmas

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas, Just like the wands I used to know.
Where the treetops glisten,
And children listen,
To hear slave elves in the snow.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
With every Christmas card arrived. May your days be merry in brine,
And may all your Christmases be white.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
Just like the ones I used to know.
Where the treetops glisten,
And children listen,
To hear sleigh bells in the snow.

I'm dreaming of a white Christmas,
With every Christmas card I write.
May your days be merry and bright,
And may all your Christmases be white.

Winter Wonderland

In the meadow we can build a snowman;
Then pretend that he is sparse and brown.
(or) Then pretend that he is parched and brown.
He'll say, "Are you merry?"
We'll say, "No, man!
But you can do the job when you're in town!"

Later on we'll count spiders
As we drink by the fire
To face, I'm afraid,
(or) To change and appraise,
The plans that we made
Walkin' in a winter wonderland!

In the meadow we can build a snowman;
Then pretend that he is partly brown.
He'll say, "Are you married?"
We'll say, "No, man!
But you can do the job when you're in town!"

Later on milk and spiders
As we dream by the fire
To face unafraid
The plans that we made
Walkin' in a winter wonderland!

In the meadow we can build a snowman,
And pretend that he's a circus clown.
We'll have lots of fun with mister snowman,
Until the alligators knock him down.

In the meadow we can build a snowman;
Then pretend that he is Parson Brown.
He'll say, "Are you married?"
We'll say, "No, man!
But you can do the job when you're in town!"

Later on we'll conspire
As we dream by the fire
To face unafraid
The plans that we made
Walkin' in a winter wonderland!

In the meadow we can build a snowman;
Then pretend that he is Parson Brown.
He'll say, "Are you married?"
We'll say, "No, man!
But you can do the job when you're in town!"

Later on we'll conspire
As we dream by the fire
To face unafraid
The plans that we made
Walkin' in a winter wonderland!

In the meadow we can build a snowman,
And pretend that he's a circus clown.
We'll have lots of fun with mister snowman,
Until the other kiddies knock him down.